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Startups I Want to Fund

startupandrew.com

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121–130 of 167 posts

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#121

Post by qznc »

icebraining wrote: post #83
Jun8 wrote: post #9

Some ideas: 1. Social Silo-busters: Couple the evils of the garden walled social network approach with posts on how hard is it to make friends later in life, add a pinch of all that useless time spent in the car commuting (scraping the bottom of Spotify or Audible) and you arrive at: ad hoc voice-based social networks based on proximity, e.g. through limited range (100m) FM transmitters (one cheap way would be to use…

The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder? Burguerlich in Hamburg has screens embedded in the tables (which come up and down) from which you can order, seems close enough: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187331-d73509...

People have screens in their pockets these days. Can't we use those?

You could order before you even arrive at the restaurant. The restaurant can track and spam you in return. A company building the app for the restaurants can collect heaps of sellable data. Why hasn't anybody done that yet?

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#122

Post by viach »

One thing wonders me - why angel investors bet on the fact they occasionally find the right team for an idea which already exists and proven in their heads? I can understand when you don't really know where to put your money and spend all day deleting emails with weird pitch decks pdfs, but if you _do_ know what's the problem which needs to be solved?

Is there a need for "outsourcing founders team" thing?

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#123

Post by TekMol »

viach wrote: post #122

One thing wonders me - why angel investors bet on the fact they occasionally find the right team for an idea which already exists and proven in their heads? I can understand when you don't really know where to put your money and spend all day deleting emails with weird pitch decks pdfs, but if you _do_ know what's the problem which needs to be solved? Is there a need for "outsourcing founders team" thing?

The problem is that you need one guy in the company that pushes the vision forward. Constantly. For years. Somebody who is intrinsically motivated to bring that thing to life.

In my experience, you do not find such a person for hire.

To an outsider startup ideas usually look like barking up the wrong tree.

Good luck finding a talented, motivated CEO willing to enthusiastically bark up the wrong tree for years.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#124

Post by viach »

TekMol wrote: post #123
viach wrote: post #122

One thing wonders me - why angel investors bet on the fact they occasionally find the right team for an idea which already exists and proven in their heads? I can understand when you don't really know where to put your money and spend all day deleting emails with weird pitch decks pdfs, but if you _do_ know what's the problem which needs to be solved? Is there a need for "outsourcing founders team" thing?

The problem is that you need one guy in the company that pushes the vision forward. Constantly. For years. Somebody who is intrinsically motivated to bring that thing to life. In my experience, you do not find such a person for hire. To an outsider startup ideas usually look like barking up the wrong tree. Good luck finding a talented, motivated CEO willing to enthusiastically bark up the wrong tree for years.

A motivated and experienced product owner with shares in company, won't this make a deal?

Again, isn't it easier to find an experienced person who likes your idea, than find a person who both has the same idea and experienced and motivated enough?

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#126

Post by casegold »

exabrial wrote: post #23

Startups I'd want to fund if I had the $: * Flow batteries * Hydrogen research (production, distribution, home & automotive fuel cells) * Stronger permanent magnets * Cost effective superconductors (rather than room temperature semi-conductors)

If I’ve learned one thing from the cleantech funding bust, it is that many of these would be more successfully funded as basic research than as startups. The iteration and development timelines and sales cycles don’t really fit the standard venture fundable startup model.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#127

Post by icebraining »

qznc wrote: post #121
icebraining wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder? Burguerlich in Hamburg has screens embedded in the tables (which come up and down) from which you can order, seems close enough: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187331-d73509...

People have screens in their pockets these days. Can't we use those? You could order before you even arrive at the restaurant. The restaurant can track and spam you in return. A company building the app for the restaurants can collect heaps of sellable data. Why hasn't anybody done that yet?

They have. A quick search reveals QikServe, GloriaFood, and others.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#128

Post by vfinn »

radicalbyte wrote: post #22

AI is already being used in waste management; specifically image recognition to help sort plastics. This is similar to techniques used in fruit/veg production to grade/bucket produce.

ZenRobotics has some big scale solutions for recycling that uses machine learning and image recognition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gO6Qsb6tQ

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#129

Post by yc-kraln »

Super interesting to see space make the list. I've been involved with "capital intensive" aka hardware startups for the last seven years, through my involvement in HARDWARE.co. I see a lot of these companies that the author is looking for, and they struggle to find funding. Maybe we need a startup discovery platform?

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#130

Post by rajekas »

malux85 wrote: post #120
rajekas wrote: post #82

I like much of this list - doesn't strike me as first world problems at all (I am not from the first world). Having spent the last two years building a climate action platform I have lots of climate change problems with startup worthy solutions, but the item that really struck me was the online zoo. As an animal lover, the very idea of zoos - even the most enlightened ones - is problematic. Instead, why not let the m…

I know that hacker news is a place for serious discussion and memes are not appropriate, but there really isn’t a sentiment more fitting than: Shut up, and take my money

I will come for your money, but I might want your brains first :)
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